• • •• i 
VI PREFACE. 
sacred, and used only by the high-priests. The 
highest order of dignity, among the Friewllv 
Islands, is the permission to wear the Cyprcea Au- 
rantium, or orange dowry. And Lister relates, 
that the inhabitants of the province of Nicaragua 
fasten the Ostrea virginicatoa handle of wood, and 
use it as aspade to dig up the ground. As matter of 
traffic they bear a nominal value and appreciation, 
proportionate to their supposed scarcity or beauty. 
Rumphius is said to have given nearly a thousand 
pounds for one of the first discovered specimens of 
the Venus Dione. The Conus Cedonulli, so very 
rarely offered for sale, is valued at three hundred 
guineas. The Turbo Scalaris, if large and perfect, 
is worth a hundred guineas: the Cyproea Auranti- 
um, without a hole beaten through it, is worth 
fifty: audit has been calculated, that a complete 
collection of the British Conchology is worth its 
weight in pure silver. In an economical and po¬ 
litical view, they are of no inconsiderable import. 
Pearls, the diseased excrescences of mussels and 
oysters, form a portion of the revenues of these and 
some other kingdoms; and constitute,with jewels, 
the rich and costly ornaments, by which the high 
and wealthy ranks of polished society are distin¬ 
guished. The Cyprsea Moneta, or money cowry, 
forms the current coin of many nations of India 
and Africa; and this covering or coat of an incon¬ 
siderable worm, stands at this day as the medium 
of barter for the liberty of man ; a certain weight 
of them being given in exchange for a slave. The; 
scholar needs not the reminiscence, that the 
suffrages of the ancient Athenians were delivered 
in 
J 
